“Fantastic thinker of the game”: Starc hails India head coach Gambhir’s mentality ahead of BGT series

New Delhi [India], October 14 (ANI): Australia’s leading speedster Mitchell Starc hailed India head coach Gautam Gambhir’s team mentality and acknowledged him as a “fantastic thinker” of the game.

The new era under Gambhir has begun on a sparkling note. Despite facing a setback in the ODI series against Sri Lanka, India has succeeded with flying colours in all the challenges that have come their way.

Gambhir’s biggest assignment since succeeding Rahul Dravid as the head coach will be the highly-anticipated Border Gavaskar Trophy, which will begin on November 22 in Perth.

Ahead of the series, Starc lavished praise on Gambhir for his professionalism and putting the team spirit ahead of individualism.

“I mean, speaking from my experience at Kolkata, he is a fantastic thinker of the game. He’s always thinking about the opponent and how to get them out as a bowling attack or how to score runs as a batting attack,” Starc said on Star Sports.

“It’s not just individual players it’s always about the team focus and how to get on top of little things that he might see in techniques or in a field placement or anything like that. The nine weeks that I spent with him were fantastic. In a T20 setup, I know that he’s got some good things,” he added.

Starc has expressed his optimism about the series before. One of the key battles that will be on the cards will be the left-arm pacer taking on India stalwart Virat Kohli.

Kohli and Starc have faced each other in 19 innings, and the Indian has been dominant against the left-arm pacer in the Test format.

Ahead of the upcoming BGT, Starc acknowledged that he enjoys his battles with Kohli despite the Indian outperforming him in their head-to-head battle.

“I enjoy my battles with Virat Kohli, it’s because we’ve played a lot of cricket against one another. I always have some good battles. I’ve managed to get him out once or twice, and he’s no doubt scored a fair few runs against me, so it’s always a good contest and one we both enjoy,” Starc previously said.